He stated that the qualities describing Quakers, such as integrity, honesty, and purity, were traits that he wanted customers to associate with the company's product.

In Ravenna, Ohio, on September 4, 1877, Henry Seymour of the Quaker Mill Company applied for the first trademark for a breakfast cereal[3] — "a figure of a man in 'Quaker garb'".

[4][2] In 1879, John Stuart and his son Robert joined with George Douglas to form Imperial Mill and set up their operation in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1889, the American Cereal Company introduced the half-ounce trial size and, as a promotion, distributed one to every home in Portland, Oregon, via boys on bicycles.

By sending in one dollar and the cutout picture of the "Quaker Man" customers received a double boiler for the cooking of oatmeal.

[7] The Quaker Oats mill in Cedar Rapids was photographed during the 1930s by Theodor Horydczak, who documented the building, operations, and factory workers at the plant.

[11] In 1946, artist Jim Nash was commissioned to produce a head portrait of the Quaker Man, which became the basis for Haddon Sundblom's famous version of 1957.

In 1968, a plant was built in Danville, Illinois, which now makes Pearl Milling Company pancake mixes, Oat Squares, Life Cereals Quaker Oh's, Bumpers, Quisp, King Vitamin Natural Granola Cereals, and Chewy granola bars, as well as Puffed Rice for use as an ingredient for other products in other plants.

In return the company obtained a license to use a number of the product names mentioned in the film for candy bars.

That same year, Quaker Oats acquired Florida-based orange juice plant Ardmore Farms, which it would own until selling it to Country Pure Foods in 1998.

The factory was first established as the American Cereal Company[21] in 1902 on the shores of the Otonabee River during that city's period of industrialization.

The Quaker plant sells cereal production byproducts to companies that use them to create fire logs and pellets.

[23] Starting in 1902, the company's oatmeal boxes came with a coupon redeemable for the legal deed to a tiny lot in Milford, Connecticut.

In the mid-1970s, the town put an end to the oatmeal lots with a "general foreclosure" condemning nearly all of the property, which is now part of a BiC Corporation plant.

[24] In 1955, Quaker Oats again gave away land as part of a promotion, this one tied to the Sergeant Preston of the Yukon television show in the United States.

[24] In 2023, concentrations of chlormequat, a pesticide known to cause reproductive and developmental issues in animals, in oat-based foods, including popular brands like Cheerios and Quaker Oats, were notably higher in 2023 compared to previous years.

The latest recall, involving the Quaker Chewy Dipps Llama Rama bars, was announced on January 31, 2024.

[33] Members of the Religious Society of Friends have occasionally expressed frustration at being confused with the Quaker Oats representation.

[37] From 1946 to 1953, researchers from Quaker Oats Company, MIT and Harvard University carried out experiments at the Walter E. Fernald State School to determine how the minerals from cereals were metabolized.

Members of the Science Club would participate in research and get special privileges, including trips to baseball games.

The lawsuit was settled on 31 December 1997 when MIT and Quaker Oats Company agreed to pay $1.85 million to the children who had been subjected to the experiments.

[citation needed] The plaintiffs' complaint cited current scientific evidence that trans fat causes coronary heart disease[43] and is associated with a higher risk of diabetes[44] and some forms of cancer.

[45] In 2014, Quaker agreed to remove trans fats from its products, at a cost of $1.4 million, although the company denied false or misleading labelling.